The Essence of Religious Conversion in the Perspective of Alfred North Whitehead's Philosophy of Processes

Abstract

This study aims to understand the essence of religious conversion from the perspective of Alfred North Whitehead's process philosophy. This type of research is library research. Data sources come from books and journal articles. The collected data is then analyzed by the method of philosophical hermeneutics with elements of personal description and reflection. The study found the following: (1) Religious conversion in the holistic model is a religious change that takes place over time and not a single event. Conversions are influenced by various interrelated variables. (2) In the meaning system model, religious conversion is understood as a change in the meaning system resulting from strong pressure from input factors and weak system elements to resist pressure. (3) Conversion career aproach sees religious conversion as a radical change in individual religion influenced by social, institutional, individual and contingency factors. Religious conversion is one form of an individual's religious participation during this phase of life. Based on the three explanations of religious conversion according to the three paradigms above, this study concludes that the essence of religious conversion from the perspective of process philosophy is the formation of human self-religiosity. The formation of self-religiosity through religious conversion involves two things, namely, datum and subjective aim. Datum is the whole variable selected through the process of prehence, while the subjective aim is the self-image desired by the individual who is forming himself. Religious conversion is a result of human nature as a being that continues to "be." the implication of this finding is the importance of formulating conversion ethics so that the phenomenon of religious conversion does not lead to social disharmony.